Our government and financial “leaders” tell us that things are back to normal and we are well on our way to economic recovery. They report rising GDP, declining unemployment, and record corporate profits. The legacy media propaganda machines, controlled by corporations dependent upon the government and Wall Street to funnel them advertising dollars in return for reporting falsehoods and mistruths, have been informing the masses that all is well. Just go back to staring at your iGadgets and tweeting your every thought to your followers, because the best and brightest in D.C. and Wall Street have it all figured out. The new normal is here to stay.

I guess my interpretation of normal deviates slightly from our glorious leaders’ definition. During the long-term bond bull market, from 1982 until 2007 the 10 Year Treasury steadily declined from 16% to 5%. This was normal because inflation declined at the same rate. Inflation declined from 13% to 3% over this same time frame according to the BLS. In reality, measuring inflation as it was measured in the 80’s and early 90’s would have yielded an inflation rate closer to 6% in 2007. During the decade prior to 2007, which consisted of supposedly strong economic growth, the 10 Year Treasury ranged between 4% and 7%. Even during the 2001 recession, it never dropped below 3.5%.

In a normal world an investor in a 10 Year Treasury bond would require a yield 2% to 3% above the rate of inflation. If the yield was below the rate of inflation they would be guaranteed to lose money. Only a fool, Federal Reserve chairman, or a CNBC bubble headed bimbo would buy a bond yielding less than the inflation rate. The BLS reported inflation rate has been between 2.1% and 3.2% over the last two years. Over this time frame, the 10 Year Treasury yielded 2% or below until the threat of tapering reared its ugly head this past summer. Would this happen in a normal free market? If things are back to normal, why aren’t supposedly free markets acting normal? The Chinese and Japanese reacted normally. They stopped buying Treasuries with a real negative yield.

The only fool willing to buy negative yielding Treasuries is none other than Ben Bernanke. He thinks they are the investment of a lifetime. He is so sure they are a can’t miss investment, he buys $2.5 billion of them per day, which just so happens to be the government deficit per day. Ben now has $3.8 trillion of bonds on his books, versus $900 billion in 2008. His balance sheet is leveraged 60 to 1, versus the 30 to 1 of Lehman and Bear Stearns prior to their implosions. When even the hint of reducing bond purchases from $85 billion per month to $75 billion per month caused 10 Year rates to jump from 1.5% to 3% in a matter of weeks, you realize how “normal” our economy and financial system is functioning.

If our financial system was functioning normally and free market capitalism was allowed to operate according to true supply and demand, the 10 Year Treasury would be yielding 4% to 5% and 30 year mortgage rates would be 6% to 7%. Think about that for a minute. This scenario was normal from 2002 through 2007. That is what normal looks like. Now open your eyes and observe what your owners are telling you is normal. The slight increase in mortgage rates from 3.5% to 4.5% has brought the Wall Street buy and rent housing recovery scheme to it knees. Imagine if mortgage rates were allowed to rise to their true market rate. Housing would collapse in a heap.

Allowing Treasury rates to adjust to a true market rate, based on true inflation, would double or triple the annual interest expense on the $17 trillion national debt and blow a gigantic hole in Obama’s already disastrous $1 trillion annual deficits. Does this sound like “normal” to a rational thinking human being with the ability to understand simple math? Luckily, there are very few rational thinking Americans left and even fewer with the ability to understand simple math. We have been programmed to believe rather than think. As long as the stock market continue to rise, then everything is normal.

Do you think Ben Bernanke and his cohorts at the Federal Reserve worry about the average person who doesn’t own stocks, has to fill up their gas tank, feed their kids, make the mortgage, auto, and credit card payments, and figure out Obamacare, while working two part time jobs? Quantitative Easing (MONEY PRINTING) has one purpose and one purpose only – to further enrich the owners of the Federal Reserve – Wall Street banks. The .1% own most of the stocks in this country and their greed and avarice can never be satisfied.

This artificial prosperity plan for Wall Street has the added benefit of allowing the captured politicians in Washington D.C. to continue their $1 trillion per year deficit spending with no consequences for their squandering of future generations’ wealth. Bernanke and Yellen will never taper, because they can’t. The Fed balance sheet will continue to grow by at least $1 trillion per year until they crash the financial system again. Except this time, there will be no money printing solution. We are all trapped like rats in this monetary experiment being conducted by evil mad scientists. No one will get out alive. Welcome to the new normal. Now eat your cheese.

43 Comments

Administrator says:

Ron And Rand Paul Tag Team Against Janet Yellen

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/25/2013 10:38 -0400

While no longer actively engaged in politcs, one of Ron Paul’s crowning achievements while in Congress, was to bring some much needed sunlight to the balance sheet, the activities, and secret bailouts of the Fed, and according to some, was being responsible for the “transaprency, openness, and forward guidance” approach to monetary policy. The paradox here, as the whole Taper – Non Taper shocking episode provied, is that the Fed itself is now caught in a reflexive Catch 22, and no longer can “renormalize” and extricate itself from its policy through “guidance” without in the process destroying everything it has achieved during the prior period of central planniing.

Still, despite Ron Paul’s unsung accomplishments there is much more to be done to expose just how actively the NY Fed’s trading desk participates in the fixing of the S&P500’s closing price day after day. For that, he will need the help of his son, Rand. Which is why as the Sunshine State News reports, “Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is ramping up his opposition to President Barack Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve. Paul is teaming up with the Campaign for Liberty, chaired by his father former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to stand in opposition to Yellen and push legislation taking aim at the Fed.”

On Thursday, the Campaign for Liberty announced a video on the subject featuring Sen. Paul and John Tate, the president of the group.

“The Senate fight over Barack Obama’s Fed chair nominee is just around the corner,” Norm Singleton, the vice president of policy for the Campaign for Liberty, wrote supporters on Thursday. “And Senator Rand Paul has vowed to block the nomination until Harry Reid brings ‘Audit the Fed’ to the floor for a vote. This will be the fight of our lives — but this is our moment!

Will Paul and Paul succeed in getting some traction in the Democrat governed senate: the same Democrats who loathed the Fed when it was only in the news over how many trillions in bank bailouts it provided, but love it now that it is best known for monetizing the US deficit and funding various insolvent welfare programs? We doubt it, but we wish the luck.

Sadly, it is now far too late to change strategy and direction, and/or focus on anything besides salvage. Which is why it is perhaps best if Yellen et al are allowed unobstructed access to everything they want to engage in: print $100 billion a month? Fine, do it. Print $1 trillion? $1 quadrillion? Go for it!

If anything, encouraging America’s monetary politburo to hit their Weimar endgoal, is now in everyone’s best interest. Frankly, the reset can’t come fast enough.

Re: Housing
I recall in the 70s when people (who had adequate disposable income to do so – which was most people in those days) were still buying new homes even when the mortgage rate was 12% OR MORE. So I don’t see that a slight bump from say 3.75% to even 5% would deter people from buying new homes — unless they either did not have the disposable income to do so or are so afraid of the unknown future that they’re not willing to do so since one or both of the income earners could either loose their jobs or be cut back to 29-30 hrs/week and wouldn’t be able to afford the house payments. That’s the scarier scenario to me. Interest rates be damned.

Denninger has another must read article over at the Market ticker. The working people have completely lost any chance to recover our country. The numbers are absolutely against us and getting worse every day. The FSA and govt workers will NEVER vote to diminish their “entitlements”.

Above post by Admin is correct. Only point to any further political activism is “educational”. Initial required readings are Gary North – “Successful Investing In An Age of Envy” and Joel Skousen – “Strategic Relocation”. Following that only the recommended actions are necessary. Not all of us will survive SHTF Day and its decade-long aftermath but hopefully enough of us will to preserve some remnants of a civil society/freedom/civilization. BC-LR to all.

“We really can’t forecast all that well. We pretend that we can but we can’t. And markets do really weird things sometimes because they react to the way people behave, and sometimes people are a little screwy.”

Alan Greenspan referring to the Fed earlier this week on the Jon Stewart Show

“A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.”

Jim, I know what you say is true. Some day in the future we will be wandering about in a desolate wasteland without a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of.

The problem is that most people in the U.S. can not wrap their minds around such a concept.

So I say to you, as you already know, that life as we know it in america is not going to change any time soon because the politico’s are still trying to float the boat.

I know you are worried about every day people grasping the concept. Now you need to stop being concerned. They will do what they will do, and no one – not you – not Barack Obama – not the heathen Chinese, not the catcher in the rye, will convince them to look at the big picture.

When people have a chance to save themselve’s and do not act it is time to let them a. live in a box b. die

This 12-chapter documentary series created and executive produced by Academy Award-winning writer/director Oliver Stone. As Americans do we really know and understand our shared and complicated history? How do we recall the small details and forgotten players that influenced some of the biggest events from America’s past? Will our children actually get the whole story from reading history books? And how will it affect the future of our country?

Here’s the math. ONE person in a combine can harvest a 1000’s of acres of ConAgra leaseholds. ONE train (with ONE engineer) to move all the grain to ONE Kraft factory that can produce a MILLION SnackyCakes bought with a BILLION of printed dollars (created with ONE finger.)

OK I exaggerate the production and supply chain –but not by much. Just how again are we going to bring this system down mathematically by withdrawing our consent? Pray tell please.

Wake me up when the KSA withdraws * its * consent to accept bucky for its oil.

The foundation of FASCISM is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State….

The FASCIST State organizes the nation… the individual is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom… the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone….

For FASCISM, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality….

Severe measures… must be taken against those who would oppose (FASCISM).

“Jim, I know what you say is true. Some day in the future we will be wandering about in a desolate wasteland without a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of. The problem is that most people in the U.S. can not wrap their minds around such a concept.”

somewhere in a sitcom or song, we got the idea that our generation must live better than our parents, to do less would constitute failure. we knew of our grandparents’ hard life, we would not be revisiting that dustbowl era.

the scientists of our time conquered drought, disease, and starvation while our leaders controlled the population explosion. the idea came across the airwaves, two children is enough. we agreed and swore off revisiting our parents life choices (my three sons, eight is enough, the brady bunch).

the japanese studied us and gave us quality products that displaced American products on store shelves. the idea came over the transom that foreign goods were more desirable, the japanese are our friends, after all. goodbye motorola quasar, hello yamaha.

the idea came in under the door, your kids don’t have to get married, they might move away but they’ll be sharing an apartment with ‘friends’ and they will discuss trivial matters and argue over geek stuff. and they will never know the hardship of their parents, the war protests, the sexual revolution, the drug scene or gay and women’s lib.

“Withdrawal of Consent” is for the most part a Mirage. Reason is there is very little alternative to operating inside this system for as long as it controls so much of the earth.

Withdrawal of Consent is the equivalent of doing Jeremiah Johnson.

You don’t like the society, you head for the Mountains and make a go of it or not living without the advantages that industrial society gives you.

Except 2 things here. First off, we are close to fresh OUT of remote mountains to head for that Weyerhauser or some other corporation does not own. Second, even Jeremiah went out with a nice Rifle and Knife he got courtesy of the Industrial Paradigm of his era.

Withdrawal of Consent MIGHT bring down this system somewhat faster as it might be pursued in Denninger’s paradigm, but if successful it would collapse systems most people depend on to live. Start with the Electrical Grid, work your way out from that.

Maybe this STARTS non-violent with people just not paying taxes (they don;t even have to refuse, they won’t have jobs and incomes to be taxed at all anyhow!), but it sure will not STAY non-violent when the Walmart Shelves go bare and the SNAP cards don’t work.

Karl’s “non-violent” option is a chimera. It is not non-violent at all. It is a means to bring down this system more rapidly than it otherwise WILL fail, but it replaces it with nothing that can function to distribute resource to so many people in so many places. You get a cluster fuck out of it.

If I printed counterfit currency, stood outside a polling place and offered to purchase votes I’m quite sure of the outcome. The intersection of monetary and fiscal “policy” in the past several years is equivalent to the same action only on the grandest scale. When QE finally approaches the iceberg of national output the ensuing crisis will provide the excuse for the state to implement total control in the name of civil order.

I have posted this more than once here @ TBP. To me it explains the economic spell Bennie has us under and alerts us to what is coming.

‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’

(Page 15)
“With a weakness most culpable, he lent his aid in inundating the country with paper money, which based upon no solid foundation, was sure to fall, sooner or later. The extraordinary present fortune dazzled his eyes, and prevented him from seeing the evil day that would burst over his head, when once, from any cause or the other, the alarm was sounded.”

Reluctantly, I enter the lions den to inject some “inconvenient truth” to the conversation…

. The $T deficit in 2009 was Bush’s (as was the worst financial crisis since the depression).
. The deficit as we speak is $750B, yet JQ references “Obama’s $1T annual deficits”… a little misleading no?
. The single most significant factor in the 2013 $750B deficit is the GOP’s hard fought battle to extend the policy of gifting the top 1% / 10% with the Bush Tax Cuts (to be fair there is relief to the middle as well… the poor “takers), not so much).
. Without the extension of the BTCs the 2013 deficit would be $250B, historically a very low number, especially expressed a % of GDP… so who’s deficit is it again?

Finally, the BTCs will continue to be the single most significant driver of the deficit for years to come… and did I mention the cost of the wars he started and Obama has been busy cleaning up (no, but they will impact the deficit for years as well). But faced with the facts, of course the reaction is a hearty guffaw and the standard mockery that “it was all Bush’s fault,” so move along… nothing to see here… did I mention Obama’s a Kenyan socialist… or muslim… or…

Yes. It was all Bush’s fault. Was the $800 billion porkulus plan of 2009/2010 Bush’s?

The national debt increased by $969 billion in the fiscal year just finished. That included fake accounting entry refunds of $100 billion from Fannie and Freddie based upon mark to fantasy accounting of their loans. Now tell me about deficits not pertaining to the national debt. I love those stories.

Federal spending in 2007 before the Wall Street created crisis was $2.7 trillion. Bush pushed it up to $3 trillion in his last year as he became a democrat. Obama assured us that the $800 billion save the economy stimulus was a one time shot. He spent $400 billion in 2009 and $400 billion in 2010 on worthless pork and handouts to his union constituencies. Therefore, Federal spending in 2013 should have been in the range of $3.2 trillion if he wasn’t being disingenuous. Federal spending is $3.8 trillion. Only $600 billion more than expected. Pretty close for government work.

Who signed the bill extending the Bush tax cuts? Who expanded upon the tax cuts with a payroll tax cut?

Obama’s defense budgets have been $100 billion higher than Bush’s highest budget. Who ramped up the wars in the Middle East? Did Bush triple our effort in Afghanistan. Did Bush go into Libya?

Your talking points are old and tired. Thanks for stopping by so I could kick a liberal in the balls and reveal their idiocy.

I can’t wait for fact oriented Obama lovers to blame the Obamacare abortion on Bush. Obamacare was passed with zero Republican votes, implemented by Obama and his team of Obamanistas, and jammed down the throats of Americans by his Democrat minions and the liberal MSM. Definitely Bush’s fault.

I noticed SRV has failed to counter my utter destruction of his MSNBC talking points. I wonder if he gets a tingle up his leg when Chris Matthews spouts his gibberish or one of the dykes tells him his children aren’t his.

[…] Our government and financial "leaders" tell us that things are back to normal and we are well on our way to economic recovery. They report rising GDP, declining unemployment, and record corporate p… […]

Hate to break it to you, but played competitive hockey for 30 yrs and never go to battle without my trusty cup

Debt and deficits… and you accuse me of hollow “talking points”…lol

Obama signed the Bush Tax cut extension bill (obviously you have a crack team on top of the news)… he agreed to extend them only to save the the payroll deduction cuts… you know for the working people of America who were decimated by the malfeasance of the elite while your side was prepared to stick it to them yet again in support of the rich… patriots all!

The US did not invade Libya, but certainly did drive the shameful effort (this is a financial debate). Obama has ended the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the GOP started and would have continued in support of the military industrial complex… among other international vested interests (we really don’t want to open that can of worms here now do we).

Your vacuous response to the fact that the national debt increased by $969 billion in the just finished fiscal year is expected. Math is hard when a storyline needs to be sold. I know adding and subtracting is difficult for Obamanistas.

So you admit that Obama increased the deficits by not only extending Bush’s dreadful tax cuts, but further increased deficits by adding the payroll tax cut. I thought you liberals believe that Social Security is a lockbox and that the SS payroll taxes are people’s retirement savings. How is cutting someone’s contribution into their retirement plan benefitting them? Didn’t Obama just take money we all would have got at retirement and allowed them to spend it on shit today? It’s like cutting my 401k contribution from 6% to 4% and saying I now have more income. You people are laughable in your ignorance about money.

Obama spent billions launching attacks on Libya. Bush signed the agreement that set the date for troops to leave Iraq. Obama had nothing to do with the withdrawal. I hate to tell you. We are still in Afghanistan. Maybe you should check your facts. I notice you ignored the FACT that Obama’s defense budget is larger than Bush’s highest budget by $100 billion.

Based upon your weak responses, I’m assuming you play competitive hockey in a girls league.

Now go back to watching Madcow on MSNBC and report back about how those evil Tea Partiers are terrorists.

Admin… “Now go back to watching Madcow on MSNBC and report back about how those evil Tea Partiers are terrorists”

No, they not terrorists, but based on the “girls league” comment (dare you to say that to a member of the US womens Olympic Team :-)) they’re just intellectually challenged, homophobic, misogynist dolts… or (useless idiot) water carriers for Koch Bros.

However, try not paying your taxes when employers take them out for you. I know I HAVE to do it; it’s one of the few things that cut right through the corporate veil in terms of criminal liability.

I often say predicting when collapse occurs is precisely the same math as walking through a minefield. Everything seems relatively fine until it isn’t. All math can do it give us rough probabilities, and even then, the underlying basis is purely psychological or political. Who claims to apply math with atomic precision to people? That would be “economists.”

On the international front, history shows when the cracks of an empire start to appear other nations feeling disadvantaged by the system will tend to gang up at once or let it collapse. Militarily, the US is unassailable, and has shown its willingness to outright conquer other nations on the flimsiest of excuses. Who can predict when this petro-narco-dollar system will be challenged successfully?

The impetus will be internal as the rot is getting deeper but impossible to predict… but I guarantee it will seem obvious when it does.

“…He thinks they are the investment of a lifetime. He is so sure they are a can’t miss investment, he buys $2.5 billion of them per day, which just so happens to be the government deficit per day. Ben now has $3.8 trillion of bonds on his books, versus $900 billion in 2008.” – Admin

And this may well prove to be the (“another garganguan theft” is more apt) “investment of a lifetime” of our picked-over turkey-carcass-of-a-floundering-nation purchased with conterfeit funny-money. What will be the final price Vampire Bernanke and his central banking brethren demand from America’s spent-hide for this unsustainable debt obligations that now greatly surpasses that which is owed to Communist China? How could ignorant voters’ for decades not see the treason by politicians in even allowing a totalitarian country to even purchase our debt?

The end game being complete and total ownership of everything by our central banking Overlords held in the “public trust?” All our “public lands” and “utilities?” Bondage to our “saintly” Masters’ in perpetuity with guaranteed income streams from the lowly, sucker-serfs as THEY will own everything left worth having that they’ve not already acquired through stock market manipulations, boom/bust cycles and cheap money creation?

“Lender Processing Services provided the media with a “first look” at the company’s mortgage performance statistics for the month of September….LPS counts a total of 3,266,000 mortgages nationwide that are 30 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure. That tally represents 6.46 percent of all outstanding mortgages…..

Of the more than 3 million delinquent loans, LPS says 1,331,000 have missed at least three payments but haven’t started the foreclosure process. Another 1,328,000 mortgages are currently winding their way through foreclosure pipelines, according to LPS’ data….

All-in-all, there are 4,594,000 mortgages going unpaid in the United States.” (“Number of U.S. Mortgages Going Unpaid = 4,594,000″, DS News)

Can we get one fucking fact straight? The BUSH tax cuts expired for everybody at midnight on December 31, 2012. When Congress reconvened on January 3, 2013, they replaced the Bush tax rates with increases in the top two brackets and left the rest of the rates as they were prior to expiration. It took a new vote to do that. There no longer exists, BUSH TAX CUTS.